Islas Flotantes de los Uros

Verena and I did a half-day trip to the ¨Islas Flotantes de los Uros¨ on Lake Titicaca near Puno this morning – so cool!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uros

Now we´re in an internet cafe – have I mentioned that it´s rather cold here (I´ve been dressing in layers ever since we reached the Altiplano, the South American highlands/high plateau!) and no one has heating – uploading pictures from our trip (I´m uploading pictures from when we were traveling in Argentina onto my flickr account and from the Uyuni trip onto facebook). Hope it´s warmer wherever you are or that you at least have heating if it´s as cold as here! You really learn to appreciate the basic things in life when traveling

Geysers el Tatio: altitude sickness or heat stroke? AND NYC PICS

On Friday we did a trip to the Valle de la Luna – great

On Saturday we got up at 3:30 am to be picked up at 4 am. After picking up a few more people and a 2 hour drive we arrived at the Geysers el Tatio around 6:30 in the morning – before sunrise. The geysers are at an altitude of 4,320 m above sea level. I felt fine. The geysers were AMAZING!!! I’ve never seen geysers before and I totally love it there! The Geysers el Tatio are supposedly the highest geysers in the world! On the way back we stopped at a village, had some tea, cheese empanadas and llama meat for those who wanted to try it. We also saw llamas in the wild, volcanoes, donkeys, and an animal that is something between a rabbit and a kangaroo – really funny

Back in San Pedro around 1:30 pm I started to get a really bad headache and my forehead felt as if on fire. I had never felt anything like this before and went straight to bed where I stayed all afternoon. Around 3 or 4 pm it got really bad and then slowly better. I think I got a heat stroke. Verena spoke to a few locals from the hostel and a paramedic and they all said they think it’s altitude sickness. I went to the paramedic in the evening myself – but no one was there. Only a sign saying to talk to the “carabineros”, which we did – in Spanish. I’m quite amazed how well the conversations often go considering my Spanish is so limited. Understanding isn’t too bad, though. I really believe it helps a lot that I learnt not only English, but also Latin (6 years) and French (4 years) in school. Nevertheless, the carabineros couldn’t really help us as the paramedic and his translator had gone to the hospital in Calama with someone who had had an accident. They didn’t know when they would return – but Calama is more than one hour from San Pedro. Still sick (headache and hot forehead) I bought some coca tea – recommended by the locals to help with the altitude – and went back to bed.

Today Verena did the Tara trip and I stayed home in bed. At noon I tried to see the paramedic again, but today there was only a woman how spoke no English and wasn’t helpful at all. She kept telling me to come back tomorrow and I kept telling here that I’m going to Bolivia tomorrow. So I went back to bed and drank more coca tea – in case it’s altitude sickness. I already feel a lot better and truly believe that I had a heat stroke (not altitude sickness) – and therefore bought a hat today

I uploaded more PICTURES - the week in NYC   I very much enjoyed uploading the pictures of my friends whom I met that week     

Tomorrow Verena and I are heading to Bolivia – it’s a 3 day/2 night trip to Uyuni and the scenery is said to be stunning! I’m feeling fine now and if it really wasn’t altitude sickness, I should be fine – we’ll be higher than 4ooo m, though, for our first night. We’ll see. I’ll let you know how things went when we get to Uyuni (in the South of Bolivia) – if the internet works there – or the next time we have internet access. My friend Sonja who is currently traveling with her boyfriend in Central America just had no internet access for 3 weeks!

Santiago de Chile & Fiji pics

On Monday Verena and I did two excellent bike tours with “bicicleta verde“ in Santiago de Chile, one in the morning and one in the evening. We had an excellent guide, Rodolfo, and we learnt a lot about Chile, its people and its history. We visited another one of Pablo Neruda´s houses and the more I learn about him, the more I admire him! We also learnt about Gabriela Mistral, the other Chilean Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. Furthermore, we found out that September 11 in Chile has a different meaning than in the U.S. – here it refers to September 11, 1973, the day Pinochet came to power. Sadly enough Pablo Neruda died only a few days later (he had cancer, but was also said to be very saddened by the political changes in his country).

Today I finally finished uploading the pictures I took in Fiji while traveling there in March – I had a really wonderful time there   As usual you´ll find them on my flickr account.

I´m getting used to using the internet in Spanish and that people in general don´t speak English. That means my Spanish is getting better – still pretty basic, though; and sometimes it simply means that I “talk” using my hands and feet

Tomorrow Verena and I are heading north – to San Pedro de Atacama – on a 24 hour bus.

Valparaiso & pics uploaded

Today Verena, Daniel (friend of Verena´s from Austria) and I went on a day trip to Viña del Mar (“garden city”) and Valparaiso (Cultural World Heritage Site) – including a visit to “La Sebastiana”, the former house of Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. I absolutely loved his house!!!

Quinta Vergara – Moai (from Easter Island) – Borde costero (Viña – Reñaca) – Av. San Martin – Reloj de Flores – Valparaiso antiguo – Plaza Sotomayor – Museo La Sebastiana

Yesterday Verena and I spent a day in an internet cafe at the corner of Plaza Brasil – and I finished uploading the pictures I took when traveling in New Zealand back in February - my favorites are Lake Tekapo, Fox glacier and from the heli-hike in Franz Joseph   Check it out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roebe/

In the evening we met up with Daniel for dinner

More pictures on my FLICKR account

Today I uploaded more pictures to my flickr account – still from back when I was traveling in Cambodia (December) and Vietnam (December and January). Click on one of the 3 pictures in the bottom right-hand corner to see more

SCUBA-DIVING – PART II: liveaboard Jan.18-22

I’m so excited - I’m going scuba diving again with Khao Lak Scuba Adventures here on Thailand’s West coast

I’ll be on the boat Manta Queen from Jan. 18 – 22, 2009. I’ll be doing 4 dives a day the first 3 days and then 2 dives on the fourth day – at the Similan Islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, and hopefully Richelieu Rock (my favorite) if the weather is good and the sea calm enough to go there – which wasn’t the case the last two trips from what I heard. I’m really looking forward to this second liveaboard and hope it’ll be as good as the one back at the beginning of November If you want to know more about the company, boat, dive sites, etc. check out their website:

www.khaolakscubaadventures.com

By the way, I uploaded some more pictures this week, but they’re still from back in November when I was traveling in Laos. My favorite pics are the ones from the Gibbon Experience – staying in a treehouse and zipping through the jungle for 3 days :)

Take care!